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NEA Participates in $20M Series C Financing for 3-V Biosciences

06/21/2013

3-V Biosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics that modulate key pathways in oncology and infectious disease, today announced the completion of a Series C financing round, raising $20 million. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance 3-V's lead oncology candidate into a Phase 1 clinical trial and to conduct ongoing preclinical studies of multiple virology leads generated by the company's integrated drug discovery process. Existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates participated in the round.

"I am very pleased by the recognition of our efforts and continued support from our existing investors," said Merdad Parsey, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of 3-V Biosciences. "3-V takes an integrated approach to building its pipeline by applying our proprietary screening methodology combined with our expertise in medicinal chemistry, drug discovery and development to generate proprietary therapeutic candidates that target key pathways in oncology and infectious diseases. Our lead oncology candidate has demonstrated compelling anti-tumor activity in pre-IND studies and with the funds from our Series C, we look forward to advancing into the clinic later this year."

3-V's lead molecule is one of a series of novel fatty acid synthase (FASN) inhibitors initially being developed to treat solid tumor cancers. FASN over-expression is associated with aggressive disease and poor prognosis in a number of cancers. In a series of preclinical studies, 3-V has demonstrated potent activity against multiple tumor types, including lung, breast, prostate and colon cancers. In addition, 3-V has demonstrated potential synergy of its FASN-inhibitors with cytotoxic agents. 3-V plans to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the third quarter and initiate first-in-human studies by the end of 2013.

"The team at 3-V has done an impressive job of generating a pipeline of novel therapeutic product candidates with promising activity in diverse oncology and infectious disease indications," said David Mott, General Partner of New Enterprise Associates and Chairman of the Board of 3-V Biosciences. "We are pleased to support 3-V's continued efforts as they advance their lead program into clinical development."

3-V is leveraging its screening platform, drug discovery and drug development capabilities to identify antiviral candidates that exploit the dependence of the virus on the host cell by blocking host-virus interactions. The leads in the company's pipeline are characterized by their novel mechanism of action, broad-spectrum antiviral activity and high barrier to resistance. 3-V is currently evaluating antiviral therapeutic candidates for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), herpes simplex virus (HSV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV).